Abstract
The study analyses the life story of Franz Stuschka, which was, to a great extent, characteristic of the fate of other Austrian Nazis. His family hailed from the Czech lands, and he himself was affected by the death of his father during the Great War, by financial hardships and badly paid work in menial jobs.
Already in his youth he inclined to extreme right-wing views and was engaged in work for the NSDAP. Since he was active in the illegal SS, he was sentenced to several months in prison.
After his release from prison he fled to Germany and returned to his home country only after the Anschluss of Austria. Even though Stuschka later became an SD member and worked in the RSHA, he can hardly be regarded as a typical representative of the "relentless generation" (Generation des Unbedingten), as this group of fanatic Nazis and boundless careerists was described by the German historian Michael Wildt.
The fact is that Stuschka did not study law nor did he reach any higher education. This, in turn, considerably marred his chances of promoting his career; he only achieved the rank of SS--Obersturmführer, even though he had definitely cherished much higher ambitions.
Seen in this light, he could have been hardly pleased in 1944 when he was appointed commander of the Terezín Ghetto's outside commando at Wulkow. This appointment, coupled with Stuschka's frustration over his failures in personal life, inevitably affected and also partly explained his sadistic behavior and treatment of the inmates at Wulkow.
After the war he was arrested in Austria, which, however, refused to extradite him to Czechoslovakia. This probably saved his life, as it was highly likely that he would have been punished in Czechoslovakia much more severely.
Since the Austrian courts were much more lenient in similar cases, Stuschka was sentenced to a mere seven-year prison term and spent in jail less than five years.